Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore, made a comment about Viagra while addressing concerns around COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
He said, “Having conversations with people who say that don’t want to get the vaccine and men that I know and having real conversations with them and saying listen you take a certain little blue pill from Pfizer you can get the vaccine as well.”
Scott made the Viagra comment during a vaccine informational session with the city’s health commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.
Scott, who served as the president of the Baltimore City Council, also posted it as a meme on Instagram. The post got many positive replies. One wrote, “I love whoever runs this account so so much,” while another commented, “Too freaking funny Mr. Mayor.”
One user wrote, “I’d take the vaccine. I wouldn’t mess with the blue pill though. Don’t need it.”
Upon hearing the mayor’s blue comment, many started talking about the two Pfizer products, while some even compared them.
One woman said, “One has been around for a while and one was just developed. They’re two different things.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Viagra (sildenafil) in 1998 for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED), while Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is relatively new and has only been approved a few months ago.
One man said, “He [Scott] is trying to connect [them] because we desperately need people to get the shot.”
Dr. Richard Vatz, a professor of Rhetoric and Communication at Towson University, said the comment is the sign of a young mayor who cannot be taken seriously.
“He’s got to decide whether he’s a kid or whether he’s an adult,” Dr. Vatz said. “To talk about something for sexual purposes as a reason people should have faith in something is demeaning to the audience and it stereotypes the audience as putting that as their priority in life, and it’s kind of insulting.” Some saw the funny side of the comment, while others think it is not an appropriate message from the mayor. One woman said, “Not really, but that’s just my opinion.”
